


Just Friends

by pherryt



Series: Star Trek Bingo [15]
Category: Star Trek
Genre: (sort of - if you take the elapsed time over fic lenght), Bottom!Jim, Denial, Everybody knows, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Slow Burn, Top!Leonard, blowjob, but definitely smut, non explicit smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-10
Updated: 2019-06-10
Packaged: 2020-04-23 22:26:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,457
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19160215
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pherryt/pseuds/pherryt
Summary: Jim and Leonard arejustfriends, so why is everyone around them insisting they're something more?





	Just Friends

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ThayerKerbasy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThayerKerbasy/gifts).



> for the friends to lovers square as picked by thayerkerbasy  
> in my opinion, this can be read as either original or AOS, though it's probably leaning more towards AOS.
> 
> this was hard for me because... most of what i write could probably be considered friends to lovers so i wasn't finding a starting point. this... kinda happened by accident. it's also a bit of a different style, hope you like it.
> 
> RATING:  
> wasn't sure if this should be set at mature or explicit.  
> all the smutty bits are really short snippets and not very explicit but... at the same time it's very clear whats going on so... tread at your own risk?

Neither Leonard nor Jim could pinpoint just when, why or how they’d become such fast friends as they had. There were so many reasons for them to clash and yet just as many for them to drift helplessly together.

Their first meeting was certainly memorable and even after they were assigned quarters on opposite ends of the grounds, though they walked through different tracks, they gravitated toward each other so often, Uhura joked that Leonard was the planet Jim’s moon revolved around.

It felt like she was believed they were more than the friends they were.

Despite the number of nonhuman cadets, the both of them still stuck out like sore thumbs, neither of them matching the criteria Starfleet looked for in a recruit. Perhaps that was why they stuck together like glue.

At first, anyway.

The friendship worked, against all odds. The sarcastic, moody, pessimistic doctor who still hoped, still loved and wore his heart on his sleeve and feared space in any form, and the brash, impulsive, genius who was afraid to open up and trust anyone who just wanted to run away to the furthest corners of the galaxy.

*+*+*+*+*+*+*+

“We’re only friends,” Leonard said, raising his eyebrow in confusion when Uhura asked him if he was all right after watching Jim leave with Gaila. “Why would it bother me who he goes home with?”

*+*+*+*+*+*+*+

“Leonard, be a pal for me,” Jim said, clapping Leonard on the back before tossing him a coat. “We’re going out and I need a wingman.”

“I’m busy, get someone else,” Leonard protested. But then Jim gave him those puppy blues and Leonard was lost, just like always.

“Some friend _you_ are,” Leonard groused later that same night as he iced his jaw, because of course Jim had gotten on somebody’s bad side _again_ by hitting on the wrong person and Leonard had gotten caught in the crossfire.

“You’re the _best_ friend,” Jim said with a groan, carefully sitting next to Leonard so as not to jostle his ribs. Things may have gotten a little out of hand, he’d admit, but thank god for Bones, coming to his rescue.

*+*+*+*+*+*+*+

“I don’t know why I put up with your shit,” Leonard growled, crossing his arms and glaring at Jim.

“Please, bones, don’t be mad? You’re the only friend I got, and besides, it was an accident!” Jim flashed Leonard that crooked, impish smile of his and Leonard felt himself cave, _again._

He could never stay mad at Jim.

*+*+*+*+*+*+*+

“We’re just friends,” Leonard griped at Nurse Chapel when Jim left Sickbay. So what if he’d had a dopey smile on his lips because Jim had stopped in? They were just friends. Leonard dropped by the bridge all the time, and that certainly had no hidden meaning in it either.

*+*+*+*+*+*+*+

“It’s what friends do for each other,” Jim chirped as he helped Leonard down off the transporter pad, Leonard leaning drunkenly on Jim, though it had been the fault of some weird plant and not a trip to the bar that had rendered Leonard so loopy.

He was still adamant about that fact even as he tucked Leonard in tight and kept watch over him till the effects had passed, Chapel already having cleared him as ‘ _not in danger’_ and knowing that Leonard would _hate_ to be laid up in his own sickbay.

*+*+*+*+*+*+*+

Leonard ran a hand down his face and covered his mouth, his eyes filling with tears as he heard the news of his best friend’s death, unable to _really_ take it in, unwilling to _believe_ nothing else could be done.

He ignored Spock’s comments that his denial was rooted in something far deeper than friendship. Because Spock was wrong. Leonard would have gone to these lengths for _anyone_.

*+*+*+*+*+*+*+

Jim resented the implication that he wouldn’t have searched just as hard for anyone else’s lost and damaged shuttle as he had Leonard’s. As captain of the Enterprise, he had an equal responsibility to everyone under his command. Nothing more, nothing less.

That’s all it had been.

Besides, who _wouldn’t_ have been that worried about a friend, especially knowing how much that friend feared a fate such as this?

*+*+*+*+*+*+*+

“Just friends,” became the kneejerk response for both Leonard and Jim just about any time someone opened their mouth, no matter the situation or what was said. the crew shook their heads and stared after them in disbelief. Newcomers to the ship lost any and all bets as Jim and Leonard continued to circle around each other, repeating the same old, tired mantra:

“We’re just friends.”

By now, the words were so automatic, it didn’t even look like they’d registered on either of the utterers, even as they drifted closer than before.  Even as the touches became more often, or lingered longer.

Perhaps that’s why they didn’t notice how things were changing between them. Or maybe things had always been this way and they’d been blind all along.

*+*+*+*+*+*+*+

 _We’re just friends,_ Leonard thought, even as his eyes caught on Jim, on his graceful movements, on his confident walk, on the brilliant smirk.

 _We’re just friends,_ Jim reminded himself, even though he couldn’t take his eyes off Leonard’s long, sure fingers, or off Leonard lips when he laughed or smiled, couldn’t take a breath when he watched Leonard tear into someone with righteous fury covering up a worried core.

*+*+*+*+*+*+*+

 _Just friends,_ they thought, when they got trapped on that backwater planet during a snowstorm filled with some radiation so strange they couldn’t use the transporters – that happened more often then one would think and Starfleet engineers really needed to get on that  - and their shelter was so damn cold they had to cuddle up next to each other.

Leonard wouldn’t admit how _good_ it felt to have Jim there, safe in his arms and Jim didn’t dwell on the fact that he’d rarely slept so well, despite the lingering danger of their situation.

*+*+*+*+*+*+*+

One thing led to another, as it always did, and without either of them knowing how it happened, they came together in an argument, Leonard kissing Jim angrily. But that was okay too, because friends kissed sometimes.

Besides, it was almost Christmas. Leonard was pretty sure there was some ancient earth tradition that required kissing around Christmas, among friends, lovers and strangers alike. That’s all it was.

*+*+*+*+*+*+*+

The blowjob was a little harder to explain.

Leonard didn’t have any friends – past or present – who would just drop to their knees in a deserted corner of the ship, open his pants and go to town. But that’s exactly what was happening and he gasped, hands threading through Jim’s hair and tugging hard.

Jim looked up with a smirk, took Leonard deep and swallowed around him. Leonard threw his head back, hitting the wall with a hard thunk, his back arching, and came hard down Jim’s throat.

Jim came off with a wet pop, wiping his mouth and surging upwards to kiss Leonard long and hard, assuring him that _he_ had friends that had done just that on more than one occasion.

*+*+*+*+*+*+*+

Jim was having to rethink his denial about the exact nature of his and Leonard’s relationship.

He’d never had someone touch him so lovingly, so _reverently_ while fucking him. He hadn’t thought it possible, and yet... Leonard’s eyes were all too soft and tender as they looked down on Jim, as he thrust forward slow and deep.

Tears welled up in Jim’s eyes, as everything overwhelmed him. He came with a cry on his lips, and the soft whisper of Leonard’s drawl in his ears murmuring adorations.

*+*+*+*+*+*+*+

 It was Leonard who braved everything, afterwards, when they lay spent and sweat soaked in each other’s arms, naked bodies tangled together. Jim gripped Leonard tight, breathing hard, while Leonard stroked calm, soothing touches down his arms and through Jim’s hair.

“Jim, we can’t keep lyin’ to ourselves, darling. I don’t think we’re ‘just friends’ and I’m not sure we ever really were.” Leonard pressed a kiss to Jim’s head as it lay across his chest. “I love you. Think I always have.”

“Yeah,” Jim choked out, but he was smiling and Leonard relaxed. “Yeah, I think you’re right. I love you too, Bones.” The words were covered in stunned amazement and they lay together for a good, long while, just basking in each other’s love.

Jim broke the silence eventually, twisting to prop himself up on his elbow and look down at Leonard seriously.

“You do realize, right, that we’re _never_ going to live this down?”

Leonard leaned up, captured Jim’s lips with his in a brief, chaste kiss, then knocked their foreheads together and whispered, “I have you. I can live with that.”

Jim’s smile was dopey. “Yeah, yeah, I can too.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> Rebloggable Tumblr link [ here ](https://pherryt.tumblr.com/post/185489464336/just-friends-star-trek-os-or-aos-rating-m-for)


End file.
